Teixiera Fallout

This year’s Christmas must be a happy one for Brian Cashman. Hank and Hal are probably continually patting him on the back for landing at least three out of four of the top free agents, according to many experts at least. Don’t let the Red Sox glass is half full fans fool you. The Mark Teixiera signing with the Yankees greatly increased their chances and hurt ours of winning a world series. Unless Lars Anderson becomes a great all around hitter then this failure will have long-term ramifications. In the short-term Mike Lowell is not a bad fallback option. It is unclear if Teixiera ever really wanted to play for the Red Sox and was going to go the Yankees the whole time with the exact price the only thing yet to be determined. Do I think the Yankees are now going to win it all? Simply put no. They are still going to need to build a lot of chemistry to deal with the top teams from last year that are largely still intact. I still see a very flawed/aging team that will make the playoffs but face off against better or more likely healthier pitching. Of course that is just a guess and a lot can change in TEN months. Either way the Yankees generated a ton more interest to their network and new stadium which will at the very least increase revenues but also win more games for them.
Now on to what the front office should now be focusing on: essentially, what do we do from here? The Red Sox have money to spend now. The Sox were willing to spend around 21 million a year on Teixiera plus money saved to spend on the catching situation. Do the Sox now signer a lesser offensive free agent like Abreu, Dunn, or Burrell? No there is no significant upgrade like Teixiera would have brought. They are all very flawed hitters. I would however like to see what Rocco Baldelli could do as a fourth outfielder seeing how that spot should get a decent amount of at-bats. All they can really do is try to further upgrade their pitching. So far their biggest offseason acquisition is Wes Littleton, not a name that inspires fans. I know there are some fans who want to see Derek Lowe return but the Mets will certainly offer more and I believe he takes it. Also, at this stage of his career I believe he is far better suited to pitching in the National League never mind the American League East. ESPN’s Keith Law then ranks Oliver Perez and Randy Johnson as the next best free agent pitchers. Two obviously terrible fits to this team. That brings me to Ben Sheets. This seems like a perfect fit to me for the Red Sox. It gives the Red Sox fans a big name to hang our hopes on. We still don’t have a set in stone fifth starter and might end up having to put the under achieving Buchholz or Masterson who I think would be a bigger help in the bullpen. Also, Beckett usually doesn’t make every start and Wakefield is getting pretty old it’s a good idea to save guys like Buchholz and Bowden to fill in these spots if they are pitching up to it. That is why the Sox still could really use another starter. Since Sheets himself is injury prone he can probably be had for a two-year $30 million dollar contract which is somewhat reasonable for what he has accomplished when he’s healthy. We don’t need him to make every start and we are known to do a good job keeping injury-prone pitchers healthy.
I would love to see Sheets bring a front of the rotation presence to the back of our rotation. It makes too much sense so I hope the Sox are doing their due diligence on him and hopefully will make an aggressive offer soon. That money while can be saved for next offseason is not going to be used too much elsewhere this year. They have the money now it’s time to go out and spend it the surplus with pragmatism. The Sox could also possibly add another arm to the bullpen. Fuentes is most likely going to the Angels at this point and they will be willing to offer more. A guy like Brandon Lyon would make some sense to add depth. Smoltz is another wildcard but until he shows he’s not going to be going back to Atlanta I’m not going to get too excited. Though he may not be ready to pitch before May or June he is the perfect veteran fifth starter/potential big bullpen arm. Imagine Smoltz in the 8th inning of a playoff game. I would take my chances with that.